use Perl

• Control (Score:2)

  by pudge (1) on 2005.03.15 19:06 (#38901) Homepage Journal

  I don't believe I have a right to control what other people watch or say besides myself, and my children
  
  I doubt they will do anything that would control what other people watch or say. Most of this has to do with specific venue, such as broadcast TV and radio. The rest is about distribution to minors. No one will control what anyone watches or sees through such legislation.
  
  You want your kids to play Grand Theft Auto? Buy it for them. No one is stopping you, and Congress won't even attempt to stop you.
  
  Therefore, the government, since it is allegedly acting as my representative, can have no authority from me, even by vote, to control what you watch or say. If they think they have such authority, I don't know where they got it.
  
  I don't understand this at all. The government has no authority to act if YOU don't believe in what they are doing?
  

  Reply to This

  • Re:Control (Score:2)

    by jdavidb (1361)

    I don't understand this at all. The government has no authority to act if YOU don't believe in what they are doing?

    I guess my argument wasn't clear. :) Sounds like I came across as saying, "If I don't believe it is right for the government to do X, then the government has no authority to do X." Which would be begging the question.

    What I was trying to say was, "I don't believe that I as an individual have the right to do X. Therefore, since the government derives its authority by delegation of its c

    --
    J. David works really hard, has a passion for writing good software, and knows many of the world's best Perl programmers
    • Re:Control (Score:2)

      by pudge (1)

      "I don't believe that I as an individual have the right to do X. Therefore, since the government derives its authority by delegation of its citizens, it does not possess the right to do X since it cannot have been delegated by me (or anyone else)."
      
      Ah. Well, I don't buy that at all, either. People collectively have more authority than they have individually. The authority to make war, for example.
      
      In the case of censorship of the airwaves: they are a public trust regulated by the government. If the gov
      • Re:Control (Score:2)

        by jdavidb (1361)

        As for the authority to make war, people individually have the right to act in their defense, and the authority to make war derives from that.

        As for parental authority, yes I have the right to forbid a company from selling a product to my child, but I do not have the right to forbid a company from selling a product to anybody else's child.

        --
        J. David works really hard, has a passion for writing good software, and knows many of the world's best Perl programmers
        • Re:Control (Score:2)

          by pudge (1)

          As for parental authority, yes I have the right to forbid a company from selling a product to my child, but I do not have the right to forbid a company from selling a product to anybody else's child.
          
          But you cannot enforce you right to forbid that company from selling to your child without the government's aid. So unless you have a way to determine how companies could figure out which kids to sell to and which not to, the government has to make a choice: help you enforce your right, or don't.
          • Re:Control (Score:2)

            by jdavidb (1361)

            But you cannot enforce you right to forbid that company from selling to your child without the government's aid.

            I'm not sure we share that axiom.

            --
            J. David works really hard, has a passion for writing good software, and knows many of the world's best Perl programmers
            • Re:Control (Score:2)

              by pudge (1)

              How do you figure you can stop a company from selling to your child without the government's aid? At gunpoint?